One day in and I'm loving my Leaf! I have a feeling that I could have done even better on the price, but the effort it took to get to this point was beyond ridiculous. All the dealerships in my area kept quoting leases around $590 with $2,500 down.

slowryd76 wrote:Finally pulled the trigger on a Leaf in Austin, TX this weekend.

One day in and I'm loving my Leaf! <snip>

Hey, slowryd, be sure to get sign up for the Austin Energy Plug-in EVerywhere program: $25 for 6 months of free charges at about 99% of the public charging stations in Austin. TOTALLY worth it, even if you plan to do mostly trickle charging. Check out the super-fast DC quick charger at the Seaholm plant downtown (2nd Street just east of Lamar: enter via Cesar Chavez at Walter Seaholm (just past Sandra Muriada, which is just past Lamar)... nothing like going from 30% to 80% in 10 minutes!

Nissan Leaf SV with QC/LED | manufactured December 201311 bars, dropped the first at 30.300 miles | located in Austin, TX

annabel398 wrote:Hey, slowryd, be sure to get sign up for the Austin Energy Plug-in EVerywhere program: $25 for 6 months of free charges at about 99% of the public charging stations in Austin. TOTALLY worth it, even if you plan to do mostly trickle charging. Check out the super-fast DC quick charger at the Seaholm plant downtown (2nd Street just east of Lamar: enter via Cesar Chavez at Walter Seaholm (just past Sandra Muriada, which is just past Lamar)... nothing like going from 30% to 80% in 10 minutes!

Good to know, annabel398. Just sent you a PM with other Austin EV questions!

Plans for home charging: L1 that came with vehicle right now - waiting for ClipperCreek (HCS-40P) L2 charger purchased off Amazon - $589

Expect to receive $7500 tax credit from federal government when I get my 2017 tax return. Had to change my W2 allowances but have the rest of 2017 to owe at least $7,500 and hopefully not a penny more!

PS - NC peeps looking to purchase - there is a $10K incentive from 'Plug-In NC' right now till end of March or fund run out. That residual value was just too much of a gamble for me - that and I'm sure the tech will be dramatically different in 3 years!

As garba said, the tax credit goes to you only if you _purchase_ it. If you lease the vehicle, the tax credit goes to the leasing company, and your purchase price (or capital cost) was supposed to be discounted by that $7500.

Since your per month payment of $285 seems about right for 15k miles/year, I'm guessing your accepted price number is off. What was the residual (end of lease purchase price)?

Residual is $10,765. What do you mean, "I'm guessing your accepted price number is off"? Thanks for the heads up on the tax credit staying with the lease company - shame on me for not doing enough research. Better to find out now - one paycheck after changing my allowances instead of the end of the year - that could have been painful. I still feel like I got it for a song though. I used http://fightingchance.com/ approach and data along with a custom spreadsheet I created based on one from carbuyingtips.com. I reached out to 13 different dealers. 3 of them didn't have Leaf's on the lot, so I passed on them. Of the 10 others, the one that had the most Leafs (2016 or 2017 all Trims) was 4 total Leafs! NC just isn't a big market for EV right now. Out of all 10 quotes, I bought from the one with the best deal, which was $3,982 under invoice. The next closest was $2,815 under, then $985 OVER invoice, $1,320 over, and $2,015 over.

slowryd76 wrote:Finally pulled the trigger on a Leaf in Austin, TX this weekend.

In any case, goodbye VW diesel, hello electric Nissan!

Congratulations slowryd76! Just did the same thing - sold my Jetta TDI back to VW and leased a Leaf. Loved my diesel but that deal was too sweet to pass on. I'm on week 2 with the Leaf and very pleased! Big upside - no more rolling into work with the hands smelling like diesel fuel on the rare days I did have to fill up!

Since your per month payment of $285 seems about right for 15k miles/year, I'm guessing your accepted price number is off. What was the residual (end of lease purchase price)?

Residual is $10,765. What do you mean, "I'm guessing your accepted price number is off"?

What I meant by that is that the "price accepted" can't be $32,023. If you total up your down payment, 36 monthly lease payments, AND residual value, the total comes out to only: $23,310 (destination and title fees not included). So after all the discounts ($7500 tax rebate to NMAC, NMAC lease discount, etc), the price of your leaf was significantly less than $32k (even less than $23,310 since your monthly lease payments include sales tax).

Oils4AsphaultOnly wrote:Since your per month payment of $285 seems about right for 15k miles/year, I'm guessing your accepted price number is off. What was the residual (end of lease purchase price)?

Residual is $10,765. What do you mean, "I'm guessing your accepted price number is off"?

What I meant by that is that the "price accepted" can't be $32,023. If you total up your down payment, 36 monthly lease payments, AND residual value, the total comes out to only: $23,310 (destination and title fees not included). So after all the discounts ($7500 tax rebate to NMAC, NMAC lease discount, etc), the price of your leaf was significantly less than $32k (even less than $23,310 since your monthly lease payments include sales tax).

Yes, you got a good deal!

Thanks! The adjusted cap cost was $20,708. This was my first lease and I feel like I was drinking from a fire hose - seems like dealers intentionally make it as complicated as possible - like some cryptic shell game. I just focused on residual value and the total cost I was going to pay over the course of the lease - seemed to work out well. The dealer showed me that she was losing $1,134 on the deal (-4.82% ROI) BUT they would make up for it by Nissan (Manufacturer) incentives - like the fact they sold their last 2016 which would bump them up to a bonus of $1k per car. Thanks for the patience - this site has been a great learning experience!

Bought a used 2013 Nissan Leaf SV last week in Seattle and imported it to Vancouver BC. The vehicle has 26000 miles on it and has a 91% State of Health capacity reading using LEAF Stat. I was waiting to post this information until I was able to get a system reading using Leafspy. Unfortunately for me two ELM327 dongles were not compatible with my Galaxy Tab, and I had to order a Wifi type dongle and use Leaf Stat with an Iphone. The Canadian Amazon site has limited information on the dongles,limited selection, and does not state whether the software is 1.5 or 2.1 version,. so I wasted a bit of money and time on two incompatible dongles.

I could not be happier with the car. It was a Seattle Washington area ex-lease car which was leased by its first owner for 2 years and 11 months starting in January 2014. The car has a 6.6 kw charger and no level 3 port, so it has never been fast charged. So it still has 12 bars, and may continue to have them for another year or so with luck. The car has only an OEM trickle charger, and I intend to continue to use this to see if I can live with the longer charge times. So far, with only a 30 km commute I anticipate this will be sufficient.

I intend to install a rear rview mirror type of aftermarket backup camera, and also upgrade the Carwings for use in Canada id the Nissan dealer here in North Vancouver will do this for a reasonable fee. Beyond that I intend to check out the Chargepoint Level 2 stations to see if they fit into my usual around town trips.

The car is well optioned, the price was great, and I am enjoying the experience of driving such a quiet vehicle.It is a Zen-like experience

I just signed the papers for a 2017 Leaf S w/ QC. Total OTD price was $22,055. This includes dealer discounts and the $10,000 Plug-in NC discount, but not the federal rebate. So once you factor that in, I got a brand new Leaf for $14,555 out of pocket. I feel like I got an outstanding deal.